by Claudia Bruemmer

Selling on eBay can be straightforward, but a lot depends on the products you sell and how easy they are to source, store and ship. Once you know your product line, it’s wise to do a little market research to see if others are selling the same products on eBay. Since some merchants sell really cheap on eBay, you may want to make sure you can be competitive.

Below are 6 tips for getting started on eBay ─ start with market research, find your suppliers, get your backend tools, set up your payment services and publish your shipping charges.

1. Market Research – If you want to sell a new product, you should determine if there is a market for it. There’s a lot of marketing information available to eBay users so you can research to find out what products would sell. No matter what products you want to sell, you can see who is selling it, what price they are selling it for and you can also see how well the item sold in the past and how many items sell each day. All this information is on eBay for everyone’s information.
2. Finding Suppliers – Once you know what to sell, you may want to find an affordable source for purchasing your product. Many merchants buy items in bulk at very low prices for profitable resale on eBay. You can import items from overseas or source from US distributors. You can get excellent results by sourcing on TopTenWholesale.com or Manufacturer.com, which have a lot of suppliers from China, India and other overseas manufacturers and wholesalers. You’ll find “verified suppliers” on both of these sites, reducing the risk of buying from foreign suppliers.
3. Estimate Your Costs – Costs can include the price of the products shipped, shipping supplies, your shipping costs to customers, your eBay costs, your costs for accepting online payment such as credit cards or PayPal, etc.
4. Backend Tools – If you are selling multiple products daily, you may need to automate your online eBay business so it takes less time to process orders. You can get special shipping software, inventory tools and payment tools to help streamline your eBay business. These tools cost money, but they can provide a good return on your investment.
5. Payment Services – There are two major payment choices when you sell on eBay: A merchant account for credit card payments, and PayPal, which accepts both credit card and PayPal payments. Both services charge a transaction fee of about $0.30 per transaction or a percentage of the transaction – usually about 3%. A merchant account usually includes a monthly fee but PayPal doesn’t. Find out more by visiting merchant account providers and www.paypal.com.
6. Shipping Charges – The items you sell usually determine your shipping methods. Most merchants do well using USPS, others rely on UPS or Fed Ex, and others have unique shipping service. When you ship a large number of items daily, you must work closely with your shipping partner to ensure timely shipments every day.

Don’t forget that business is 24/7. Once you get established on eBay, your work is never over. You must continuously streamline your business processes, constantly updating product details, eliminating products that don’t sell, adjusting pricing, etc. Then there’s customer service; you’ll have many details to attend to.

eBay can be a great way to sell products from home; however, some categories of products are very competitive, and that’s why you need market research. Needless to say, it’s important to buy products at the lowest price possible so you can offer them at competitive prices. That’s why TopTenWholesale and Manufacturer.com are such great sites for finding manufacturers and suppliers from China and around the world where products cost less because materials and labor are cheaper.